List of chemical elements naming controversies

Newly discovered chemical elements normally receive systematic element name, and be baptized by their discoverers. In some cases there was simultaneous discoveries, so that there was a Elementnamensgebungskontroverse. This was the case with the elements 104 to 108, the history of discovery began in the 1960s. The conflict ended only in 1997.

The three groups that fought over the naming, were an American at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, a Soviet at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna near Moscow and a German group, the Society for Heavy Ion Research (GSI ) in Darmstadt.

Igor Kurchatov was the father of the Soviet atomic bomb, hence the name for the Americans was not acceptable. The American name for element 106 was unacceptable for some, because Glenn T. Seaborg was still alive.

The proposals of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 1994 were an attempt to resolve the conflict in that element 104 should be named after the Russian Dubna and element 106 was given the vacant name Rutherford. This was rejected by the American Chemical Society (ACS ), since the discovery of 106 was not made ​​by an American group in question and this group should have the full right of naming. In addition, the name rutherfordium had already found for 104 input into the textbooks, so this should not be used for another element.

At the 39th meeting of the Council of IUPAC from 29 to 30 August 1997 in Geneva this endorsed the new recommendations of the Committee on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry ( CNIC ) and the items received their final Namenn.

At the proposal of the Germans for the element 109 Meitnerium although there was no Namensgebungskontroverse, but initially there was uncertainty about the fact that this would also be accepted by IUPAC, which finally happened in 1997. ( You know, the GSI proposals for 107 and 108 were initially not accepted and confirmed only in 1997. )